"Because people are so invested in this show, and some of these things will happen to characters that they have, over the past four years, gotten to know and love, it makes it so personal," she said.

Matthew Weiner, who directed the episode, expressed Poussey's impact in an interview last week.

"We lose this person who is really an innocent, at the hands of an innocent, there's a double tragedy there," Weiner said.

Danielle Brooks (Taystee on OITNB and Wiley's on- and off-screen best friend) discussed the difficulties of filming Poussey's tragic death.

"I remember talking to [Weiner] and saying, 'I have to be honest, I can't do this over and over again. Yes, I'm trained as an actor, I went to school for this and all of that. But this is not something I can do over and over again,'" Brooks said.

Poussey's death is seen as an allegory for the Black Lives Matter movement, as well as the challenges black Americans face on a daily basis.

"And now we get to have a voice and say listen, 'this is the world that we live in, we're telling this story for the lost, the last, the least, the left behind, the looked over.' That's who we're telling this story for," Brooks said.